Following up with the ending paragraph of my recent article, With all the recent debate on race, one thing is quite clear, Malaysia is not ready to do away with racial policies and politics.
Post 2008 Elections : False Sense of Realisation
Further to 2008 Tsunami, I did write that Pakatan Rakyat won because Rakyat was angry with BN and Pak Lah. Each community (read RACE) had their own grouses with the government of the day, hence BN lost 5 states, and not because Malaysians are ready to do away with race based policies or politics.
Pakatan Rakyat leaders and some liberal analyst went to town claiming that Malaysians are ready for change and Pakatan will bring an end to racial politics. Anwar then launched his Sept 16 drive (this day has now been made a Public Holiday) which he sold ‘Ketuanan Rakyat’ as an alternative to ‘Ketuanan Melayu’, which Pakatan Rakyat’s leaders claimed as racist.
Anwar said many time that if Pakatan Rakyat takes over Putrajaya, policies would be changed to reflect needs based affirmative action policies rather than race based. Perkasa had few members then, so not many made much noise. DAP were ecstatic but PAS was silent in agreement. Like Pah Lah, Pakatan is also prone to flip -flop statements.
There was also a time went all Pakatan Leaders called up press and announced that they will respect the constitution in terms of Bumiputra rights and privileges. But calls for equality and reforms on NEP continued in most Pakatan rallies, some of which I attended.
Post 2008 elections with many pro-opposition Malay bloggers supporting the dismantling of NEP associated policies, there were some sense of realisation amongst politicians that Malaysians are ready to do away with raced based policies and politics.
In BN, Gerakan sounded warning that BN raced based parties have to change. At one point even threatening to leave BN if there are no reforms. MCA & MIC were also taken in by all the noise in the blogsphere by numerous calls for their members to serve all races rather than representing and supporting their own race. UMNO and UMNO Youth were also advocating services to all races. PPP went further by suggesting that BN coalition to be merged into one party.
At one point, Malaysian public were also led to believe that we are ready for change, influenced by small number of arm-chaired, well to do, prominent political critics and analyst writing their rather skewed opinions in their blogs.
Post 2008 Elections : Reactions
Then came One Malaysia blog by Najib, just before he took over from Pak Lah. Najib’s One Malaysia concept appeared to be his reaction to calls to do away with racial politics and NEP. I knew at that point that he was wrong and that Najib was another victim of online onslaught on NEP and raced based politics. Will touch on Najib later.
There were also several incidents which tested Pakatan’s ‘Ketuanan Rakyat’ resolve. The were huge protest over Selangor MB Khalid’s suggestions to open up UiTM to non-Malays. Though the issue lasted just for couple of weeks, it was actually a message to Pakatan that Malays are not willing to do away with all these.
There was also protests over increased bumiputra quota imposed by the Kedah government on housing projects in the state. This time it was the opposite, non-malays, at the politicians protested and the issue had died down since. Note that the so-called liberal Malays did not make any noise.
There was also severals protest by villagers, mostly Malay over relocation of pig farms in Selangor. There were some issues as well with exhumation and relocation of Indian cemetery in Kedah. No non-Indians were seen protesting along with Indians. These incidents itself had proven that we Malaysians still will look at everything from the racial angle first and foremost.
Authorities now even afraid to demolish any illegal, largely not patronized, individual owned, ill-maintained Hindu temple just because’ it is a sensitive issue’. So race takes precedence over law of the land. Even Pakatan Rakyat will not uphold the law and demolish any temple because certain race will get offended, no matter that the illegal Hindu temple stands in way of some far more useful infrastructure that will benefit large number of constituents, such as roads or hospitals.
Emergence of Perkasa & Najib’s Miscalculations
With the emergence of Perkasa as an alternative voice for the Malays, my doubts has been proven. Najib promotion of 1Malaysia has prompted UMNO’s leaders to tone down their race based rhetorics. Some UMNO leaders actually wanted to wait and see if Najib’s 1Malaysia, New Economic Model (NEM) will gain support from the masses, especially the Malays and were reluctant to speak up.
Perkasa took the opportunity and has been vociferously vocal on defending Malay rights and privileges. With membership now said to number 300,000, they can be said to be bigger than most of BN member parties and even DAP and PKR. Ibrahim Ali’s rhetorics, joined by Majlis Perundingan Melayu (MPM) , with the support of Tun Mahathir has riled both UMNO and Opposition.
They have been lashing out at both BN and Pakatan based on several small incident including the so-called marginalization of Malays in Penang and calling BN stupid for being too generous with non-Malays, the recent ones being donations to Chinese schools in Hulu Selangor and Sibu.
Post 2008, influenced by the need to be in touch with the seemingly influential online community, Najib took the initiative to be more inclusive and promoted his 1Malaysia. The 1Malaysia catchphrase and sloganeering has been, his own words, fairly successful and as famous as McDonalds.
While he has managed to reach out to the young and those who are more inclined to believe what is on the net, he forgot that large number of Malays still those who are conservative where Malay culture, privileges, subsidies and government assistance are still important and relevant to them. This is where Najib has miscalculated the sentiments of conservative Malays. While too busy trying to reach out to the young and largely urban voters, he forgot UMNO’s traditional supporters, who are now the main supporters of Perkasa and MPM.
The last straw for Perkasa and MPM came with the introduction of New Economic Policy by Najib. Perkasa and MPM organized a forum and slammed NEM and openly, inNajib’s presence, pronounced that NEM is a threat to Bumiputra rights and privileges.
Najib has been check mated and responded with assurance that bumiputra rights and privileges would be restored, which directly contradicts his own NEM. Najib had since never recovered and details of NEM implementation has not been forthcoming. His speech at MCA Economic Congress had no mention whether NEM would stick to his earlier miscalculated promise of market based reforms which includes liberalization of various economic sectors, which also means doing away with NEP.
Recent survey by Merdeka centre also revealed that Malays still favour NEP.
Pakatan Rakyat : False Promises of Change??
Ok, fine, let’s vote out Najib and BN and let Pakatan Rakyat take over Putrajaya. Will they be able to make a difference?
While Mr Lim Kit Siang and other opposition leaders has been mocking 1Malaysia concept, criticizing Najib lack of follow up on NEM and Najib’s about turn on market reforms, Pakatan Rakyat is actually doing the same mistake as Najib by promising equality and meritocracy to potential voters, when large number of Malay conservatives are still in favour of the old NEP
How sure is Pakatan Rakyat that they will do away with NEP when they take over Putrajaya. Will Anwar stick to his words that he will replace NEP with his version of Affirmative Action based on needs rather than race, which effectively mean doing away with Malay rights and privileges?
Why there was a silence from DAP and PKR when PAS President Hadi Awang opposed to doing away with housing discounts for bumiputra. Hadi went on to say that we should uphold bumiputra rights and privileges. Where was Lim Kit Siang then ??
Will Pakatan Rakyat do away with various race based institution such as Mara? Can Anwar open UiTM to non-malays keeping in mind that the same suggestion by Selangor MB Khalid met with street protest. Will DAP economic advisor dare to ask all race based institutions and business cartels such as Chinese Chamber of Commerce, it’s Indian and Malay equivalent to merge? Will a future DAP Minister of Finance dare to implement open tender process for all government contracts?
What is Anwar, Lim Kit Siang’s strategy against PAS seemingly reluctance to do away with NEP. How will Anwar and DAP face protest from Perkasa and MPM in their pursuit of market reforms and needs based affirmative actions when even Najib is unable to take the heat?
Improve NEP Implementation, Not Abolish, At Least for now
Until and unless there are marked presence of Malay in businesses and equity ownership across the board, doing away with NEP at this stage will be impossible. With Chinese dominance of almost all sectors, they should learn to share the cake and focus on growing globally rather than focusing on the small market in Malaysia.
What interested party, BN or opposition should do is remove corruption, cronyism and nepotism and ensure meritocracy within the share of whatever allocated to bumiputras, eg scholarship meant for bumiputras should be only provided to poor Malays rather than son a Malay millionaire.
In summary both Najib and Pakatan Rakyat leaders have miscalculated the sentiments on the ground and no matter who is at helm in Putrajaya, NEP is there to stay until Malays have a respectable (not majority or significant) share of the nation’s wealth, at least that is what Malays want.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Tales Of 2 Taxi Drivers
Apa lagi mereka ni mau??
That’s what a driver told me minutes after I got into a taxi after quite a long gap. I left my car at a service center and took a cab back.
The middle aged driver with a scull cap went on without even a hint on stopping to ask my opinion, never mind that I would rather listen than debate or support his piece. It’s good to listen from the man in the street rather than gleefully believe what’s written by the so-called opinionated intellectuals in the blogs.
He was expressing his anger on Chua Soi Lek’s speech at MCA’s Economic Congress. He also berated Najib’s brother, whom he claims was seen as supporting the Chinese entirely, though we know that Nazir Razak’s speech was more focused strength of harmony and diversity that put Malaysia on better platform when operating regionally or even globally.
I would attest to this as when I was working in a MNC which also operates similar global centres in numerous Asian cities, most of our counterparts were comfortable dealing with Malaysians but colleagues in the other countries, eg People in Hong Kong were quite at ease with the Malaysian Office but often complains about the Indian office and vice versa.
It is our exposure to various cultures and ways of doing things that put us in a comfortable position when dealing with foreigners and other cultures in general. We do get quite a balanced exposure and worldview as our media is quite balanced in terms of local and foreign coverage as well as due to our direct exposure with multi-ethnic society. If you read an English newspaper in India, you do not get the same amount of information as you get from Malaysian English daily, except for maybe, the Sun.
I also noticed this directly when I was in Hyderbad and Bangalore, the Silicon Vally of India. Most of the employees in the global centre were MBA holders but their general knowledge was pathetic, they only know everything Indian, most of them have never put of a foot outside their state and most never ventured elsewhere, therefore dealing with people from Hong Kong and British was tough as their way of doing things, they way they communicate (try this with Indian nationals, Gobind Deo is nothing) is completely different, hence they find it difficult to work with others as compared to Malaysians.
Back to the taxi driver. He was practically asking ‘what else do the Chinese community wants? He went on saying that almost the entire economy is controlled by them. Isn’t it fair that they share with the others, instead of asking for more.
He also asked have we ever heard Chinese companies offering Malay or Indian companies to participate in their ventures. He also claimed that Mahathir helped the chinese more than he helped Malays. He also went on to say that Malays are corrupt because of chinese were greedy and they want everything in short cuts, hence fuelling corruption.
He went on saying that his son works as an officer in a Chinese company for many years with no opportunity to move up the ladder as the top management was entirely Chinese. He said that his son is now working in an MNC and got promoted twice earning more than his previous supervisor. He kept on repeating that he has many Chinese friends along the way insisting only the rich Chinese are greedy unlike his fellow Chinese taxi driver whom he found to be reasonable.
He found that Chinese has become more demanding ever since DAP made strong gains in 2008. He claims to be a PKR supporter but he says he can’t agree with Chinese demanding for more. His assertion is similar to what we think of MCA, that Soi Lek is just trying to make MCA look more relevant to the Chinese community by demanding for fairness, equality etc. He also said that MCA is ungrateful.
Thankfully, he was not in favour of Perkasa, whom he claimed only making Malays look weak, stupid and rude.
Later in the same evening, I hoped on to another taxi collect my car and this time, the driver was an Indian. Noticed a Star paper, a tamil paper and a Makkal Sakhti cap (which got me excited) on his dashboard. He started conversing in reasonably good English, by complaining about the price hike, (apparently not realising that my own short journey to the car service cost me 30 percent more than last year), claiming that Malaysia is becoming too expensive for people like him.
He went on to say that he has heard nothing his application for individual taxi permit offered by Najib last year. He claims that most of it went to Malays though he said one of his Indian friends got it.
I took the opportunity to ask whether he was a Makkal Sakthi member. He shrugged it off saying that Indians are stupid as they are often fooled by equally stupid leaders. The forty plus looking guy said that he lost his previous job as a clerk in a legal firm mainly due to his own doing. He claimed to have joined the Hindraf movement and had many absences from work. He got many warnings from his Indian employer and when there was an offer to drive taxi, he lapped it up, claiming it was better to be his own boss.
He went further by saying that Indians are quick to praise and support leaders without appraising their track record or quality. This he claimed is the reason why majority Indians voted for Pakatan. He says that he no longer believes politicians as he claims that many promises thrown during the campaign rallies, which he claims he religiously attended due to the ‘Makkal Sakhti’ phenomenon, were never fulfilled.
He was also sore that nothing was done to help the Indians. He says that there is no point of donating over millions of ringgit to Hindu temples in Selangor as they are going to go to waste. He suggested why not Selangor State government sponsors a taxi for those who are genuinely unable to get a job or even people like him who is paying a hefty daily rental to the permit holder. Quite a sensible idea indeed.
The driver also says that the State Exco member is simply seeking publicity by going to every other temple and handing over donations when he can actually do it all at one go in his office. I never thought about that.
MIC is seen as useless to him but he is certainly not pleased with Pakatan Indian leaders who he claims has become too loud and no action to speak of giving an example of deputy Chief Minister of Penang meddling in Bkt Jalil estate worker issue. He asked, where has Prof Ramasamy been for all these years. It was very apparent that he was also sore with Pakatan on the Kampung Buah Pala issue.
Towards reaching the service centre, he mentioned that he just returned from Pilgrimage in India (gosh and he claims it difficult to survive as a taxi driver) and proclaimed that life is certainly better here in Malaysia.
It is certainly worthwhile to listen to the normal man in the streets. My various similar interactions tells me that race remains important in the mind of people here as opposed to various opinions by largely liberal, well to do Malaysians who claims that we are ready to do away with racial quota, racial politics etc.
My only long term solution to improve race relation is to have only one school stream, bet it Malay or English medium. Having Tamil and Chinese schools are never good if we are seriously concerned over deteriorating race relations. But when even the so-called multi-racial political parties such as Gerakan, PKR and DAP are not prepared to support one school system, we are doomed.
Though politically, opinions from the taxi drivers do not sound good for either BN or Pakatan, it is quite evident that the number of fence-sitters is on the rise, which gives a rather bleak outlook on the possible outcome of the next general elections.
That’s what a driver told me minutes after I got into a taxi after quite a long gap. I left my car at a service center and took a cab back.
The middle aged driver with a scull cap went on without even a hint on stopping to ask my opinion, never mind that I would rather listen than debate or support his piece. It’s good to listen from the man in the street rather than gleefully believe what’s written by the so-called opinionated intellectuals in the blogs.
He was expressing his anger on Chua Soi Lek’s speech at MCA’s Economic Congress. He also berated Najib’s brother, whom he claims was seen as supporting the Chinese entirely, though we know that Nazir Razak’s speech was more focused strength of harmony and diversity that put Malaysia on better platform when operating regionally or even globally.
I would attest to this as when I was working in a MNC which also operates similar global centres in numerous Asian cities, most of our counterparts were comfortable dealing with Malaysians but colleagues in the other countries, eg People in Hong Kong were quite at ease with the Malaysian Office but often complains about the Indian office and vice versa.
It is our exposure to various cultures and ways of doing things that put us in a comfortable position when dealing with foreigners and other cultures in general. We do get quite a balanced exposure and worldview as our media is quite balanced in terms of local and foreign coverage as well as due to our direct exposure with multi-ethnic society. If you read an English newspaper in India, you do not get the same amount of information as you get from Malaysian English daily, except for maybe, the Sun.
I also noticed this directly when I was in Hyderbad and Bangalore, the Silicon Vally of India. Most of the employees in the global centre were MBA holders but their general knowledge was pathetic, they only know everything Indian, most of them have never put of a foot outside their state and most never ventured elsewhere, therefore dealing with people from Hong Kong and British was tough as their way of doing things, they way they communicate (try this with Indian nationals, Gobind Deo is nothing) is completely different, hence they find it difficult to work with others as compared to Malaysians.
Back to the taxi driver. He was practically asking ‘what else do the Chinese community wants? He went on saying that almost the entire economy is controlled by them. Isn’t it fair that they share with the others, instead of asking for more.
He also asked have we ever heard Chinese companies offering Malay or Indian companies to participate in their ventures. He also claimed that Mahathir helped the chinese more than he helped Malays. He also went on to say that Malays are corrupt because of chinese were greedy and they want everything in short cuts, hence fuelling corruption.
He went on saying that his son works as an officer in a Chinese company for many years with no opportunity to move up the ladder as the top management was entirely Chinese. He said that his son is now working in an MNC and got promoted twice earning more than his previous supervisor. He kept on repeating that he has many Chinese friends along the way insisting only the rich Chinese are greedy unlike his fellow Chinese taxi driver whom he found to be reasonable.
He found that Chinese has become more demanding ever since DAP made strong gains in 2008. He claims to be a PKR supporter but he says he can’t agree with Chinese demanding for more. His assertion is similar to what we think of MCA, that Soi Lek is just trying to make MCA look more relevant to the Chinese community by demanding for fairness, equality etc. He also said that MCA is ungrateful.
Thankfully, he was not in favour of Perkasa, whom he claimed only making Malays look weak, stupid and rude.
Later in the same evening, I hoped on to another taxi collect my car and this time, the driver was an Indian. Noticed a Star paper, a tamil paper and a Makkal Sakhti cap (which got me excited) on his dashboard. He started conversing in reasonably good English, by complaining about the price hike, (apparently not realising that my own short journey to the car service cost me 30 percent more than last year), claiming that Malaysia is becoming too expensive for people like him.
He went on to say that he has heard nothing his application for individual taxi permit offered by Najib last year. He claims that most of it went to Malays though he said one of his Indian friends got it.
I took the opportunity to ask whether he was a Makkal Sakthi member. He shrugged it off saying that Indians are stupid as they are often fooled by equally stupid leaders. The forty plus looking guy said that he lost his previous job as a clerk in a legal firm mainly due to his own doing. He claimed to have joined the Hindraf movement and had many absences from work. He got many warnings from his Indian employer and when there was an offer to drive taxi, he lapped it up, claiming it was better to be his own boss.
He went further by saying that Indians are quick to praise and support leaders without appraising their track record or quality. This he claimed is the reason why majority Indians voted for Pakatan. He says that he no longer believes politicians as he claims that many promises thrown during the campaign rallies, which he claims he religiously attended due to the ‘Makkal Sakhti’ phenomenon, were never fulfilled.
He was also sore that nothing was done to help the Indians. He says that there is no point of donating over millions of ringgit to Hindu temples in Selangor as they are going to go to waste. He suggested why not Selangor State government sponsors a taxi for those who are genuinely unable to get a job or even people like him who is paying a hefty daily rental to the permit holder. Quite a sensible idea indeed.
The driver also says that the State Exco member is simply seeking publicity by going to every other temple and handing over donations when he can actually do it all at one go in his office. I never thought about that.
MIC is seen as useless to him but he is certainly not pleased with Pakatan Indian leaders who he claims has become too loud and no action to speak of giving an example of deputy Chief Minister of Penang meddling in Bkt Jalil estate worker issue. He asked, where has Prof Ramasamy been for all these years. It was very apparent that he was also sore with Pakatan on the Kampung Buah Pala issue.
Towards reaching the service centre, he mentioned that he just returned from Pilgrimage in India (gosh and he claims it difficult to survive as a taxi driver) and proclaimed that life is certainly better here in Malaysia.
It is certainly worthwhile to listen to the normal man in the streets. My various similar interactions tells me that race remains important in the mind of people here as opposed to various opinions by largely liberal, well to do Malaysians who claims that we are ready to do away with racial quota, racial politics etc.
My only long term solution to improve race relation is to have only one school stream, bet it Malay or English medium. Having Tamil and Chinese schools are never good if we are seriously concerned over deteriorating race relations. But when even the so-called multi-racial political parties such as Gerakan, PKR and DAP are not prepared to support one school system, we are doomed.
Though politically, opinions from the taxi drivers do not sound good for either BN or Pakatan, it is quite evident that the number of fence-sitters is on the rise, which gives a rather bleak outlook on the possible outcome of the next general elections.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Useless Malaysian Tamil Newspapers.
While the politicians from both divides are busy debating the NEP and NEM, Tamil Language newspapers appears not in the know of the whole discussion and debate. For the benefit of many of my non-Indian readers, this write up is to provide some information on Tamil dailies in Malaysia.
I only buy Tamil Newspaper in weekends and I finish it within 15 minutes as there are usually no interesting contents except for politicians slamming and slandering each other. The main reason for my weekend habit of buying all mainstream newspapers (including Utusan but not the Chinese newspaper – I can’t read) is to keep in touch with the language and also follow latest issues and happening within the community. I do read online version of Sin Chiew and others.
Tamil newspapers in Malaysia have extremely low circulation and read mainly by the working class. There are 3 main newspapers, Tamil Nesan, Malaysia Nanban and Makkal Osai. There were attempts to bring some others to the streets but they eventually die a natural death due to low circulations.
Despite all the negatives, these 3 newspapers are among the 15 surviving main Tamil language dailies in the world, the others mainly based in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. For those who are not aware, Tamils are the buggest ethnic group within the Indian Community in Malaysia with population at around 1.2 Million. The rest are mainly telugus, malayalees and small number of Ceylonese, Punjabis and northern Indian ethnic groups.
Tamil Nesan is owned by Samy Vellu, where his son Vell Pari is the Managing Director while if I am not mistaken, his wife Indrani is the advisor.
The initial purpose if this newspaper is promote the image of the MIC, it’s president, his wife and of course, to make money.
Samy Vellu, despite his serious demeanor and strong language, used to write poems every Sunday in the main page. It was so popular that it was taken off the page last year. For many, the poems, despite it’s language prowess, lacks in substance and proved to be a source of laughter. The contents are usually for community building, leadership, respect etc, but proves something contradictory to the behaviour of the MIC leaders themselves.
On the other hand, His wife occupies half a page of the last page. News reports appear almost daily on her activities, usually social or charity events graced by her.
The second page belongs to maverick writer, Tamil Mani, once a fierce Samy Vellu critic turned friend In need.
His contribution, or rather non-contribution are clearly exemplified here
It must be recognized that post March 2008, the newspaper underwent many changes and surprisingly they now provide positive coverage on opposition party leaders, some of whom had openly derided Samy Vellu before. Despite attempting to become more independent and open, circulation remained low.
Makkal Osai is closely linked to Datuk S,Subramaniam (ex-Deputy Minister). Despite being reasonably popular in the past, the paper has lost it’s shine ever since they went into various rows with Tamil Nesan.
It appears that the sole purpose now is to promote Subra and his allies while providing extensive coverage on politics in Tamil Nadu and plight of Sri Lankan Tamils.
Malaysia Nanban was founded by Dato Sikandar Bacha, a prominent Indian Muslim businessman in the 80s. Nanban is seen as more independent and neutral in it’s coverage throughout the years.
Nanban is brave enough to criticise or support both BN and Pakatan when it matters to Indian community although it had made some blunders in the past resulting in delays to renewal of their annual permit. They were also once warned for going to the extremes in reporting Sri Lankan civil war where their reports were more in support of rebel Tamil Tiger leader, Prabakaran of LTTE, which is labeled as a terrorist group by UN. More on Malaysian Tamils affinity with Prabakaran here
Similarities between the 3 newspapers
All 3 papers have only about 20 pages every day except for Sunday where they provide a leisure supplement.
All 3 dailies provide at least one page coverage on issues affecting the Sri Lankan Tamils. It used to be 4 pages during the civil war.
All 3 papers provide at 2 least 2 page coverage on politics in Tamil Nadu and India. Most of the news are from the same syndicated source. They target Indian National living in Malaysia as well as Malaysian Tamils who are still fond of what some of them call, their motherland. (As them to go and live there, they never will)
All 3 newspapers provide extensive coverage on event involving MP, ADUNs or Indian VIPs depending on their political leaning although all 3 attempts to cover both BN and Opposition.
All 3 papers have limited advertisements hence their main source of revenue depends on number of copies sold.
All 3 papers provides inconsistent one page sports coverage, with no follow throughs the following day or week.
Tamil Nesan and Makkal Ossai of recent, are more fond of sensational headlines, usually associated with MIC political rivals.
All 3 newspapers hardly provide any information of how to get assistance of government agencies for various needs such as getting aid for the hardcore poor, resolving identity card issues and other common problems associated with the community.
All 3 news papers hardly provide regular coverage on business opportunities or business loans or funding available to the community.
None provide regular coverage of stock market, business news or investment opportunities.
None has active online presence. Online version of Nanban is not promptly updated and at times not at all.
Differences
Not much except for more neutral and independent Nanban where there are semblance of nation building editorials every day.
Malaysia Nanban is also favoured by Najib, who graced their SPM students prize giving event for last 2 years.
Summary
All 3 newspapers have not done much for community where it matters most, let alone nation building.
I have the opportunity to mingle with working class people whose source of news are solely from Tamil newspapers. They appear to be lost when informed of latest happenings in the country, political or non political. That’s how shallow the information that they get from these dailies.
They are also not aware of many aid and assistance available from many government and state agencies due to lack of coverage in the dailies.
They also have less knowledge of history, therefore do not appreciate country progress in politics, economy and socially throughout the years. This is also one of the reasons for their support for Hindraf, who received extensive coverage in Nanban and to a certain extend, Makkal Ossai.
All the mud slinging between Makkal Ossai and Tamil Nesan even invited the reprimand from PM Najib during the recent MIC AGM. Despite the reminder not to use newspapers for own political agenda, both papers have continued the ugly fight till today. Read here for more.
It would not be a loss for the tamil community if any of these dailies are out of business or even shut down by government. Both Tamil Nesan and Makkal Osai should just shut down their operations so that Nanban can thrive to become more authoritative independent voice of the community.
Perhaps a dual language (Bahasa and English) equivalent should be introduced to cater for the non-Tamil reading/speaking group within the Indian community.
I only buy Tamil Newspaper in weekends and I finish it within 15 minutes as there are usually no interesting contents except for politicians slamming and slandering each other. The main reason for my weekend habit of buying all mainstream newspapers (including Utusan but not the Chinese newspaper – I can’t read) is to keep in touch with the language and also follow latest issues and happening within the community. I do read online version of Sin Chiew and others.
Tamil newspapers in Malaysia have extremely low circulation and read mainly by the working class. There are 3 main newspapers, Tamil Nesan, Malaysia Nanban and Makkal Osai. There were attempts to bring some others to the streets but they eventually die a natural death due to low circulations.
Despite all the negatives, these 3 newspapers are among the 15 surviving main Tamil language dailies in the world, the others mainly based in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. For those who are not aware, Tamils are the buggest ethnic group within the Indian Community in Malaysia with population at around 1.2 Million. The rest are mainly telugus, malayalees and small number of Ceylonese, Punjabis and northern Indian ethnic groups.
Tamil Nesan is owned by Samy Vellu, where his son Vell Pari is the Managing Director while if I am not mistaken, his wife Indrani is the advisor.
The initial purpose if this newspaper is promote the image of the MIC, it’s president, his wife and of course, to make money.
Samy Vellu, despite his serious demeanor and strong language, used to write poems every Sunday in the main page. It was so popular that it was taken off the page last year. For many, the poems, despite it’s language prowess, lacks in substance and proved to be a source of laughter. The contents are usually for community building, leadership, respect etc, but proves something contradictory to the behaviour of the MIC leaders themselves.
On the other hand, His wife occupies half a page of the last page. News reports appear almost daily on her activities, usually social or charity events graced by her.
The second page belongs to maverick writer, Tamil Mani, once a fierce Samy Vellu critic turned friend In need.
His contribution, or rather non-contribution are clearly exemplified here
It must be recognized that post March 2008, the newspaper underwent many changes and surprisingly they now provide positive coverage on opposition party leaders, some of whom had openly derided Samy Vellu before. Despite attempting to become more independent and open, circulation remained low.
Makkal Osai is closely linked to Datuk S,Subramaniam (ex-Deputy Minister). Despite being reasonably popular in the past, the paper has lost it’s shine ever since they went into various rows with Tamil Nesan.
It appears that the sole purpose now is to promote Subra and his allies while providing extensive coverage on politics in Tamil Nadu and plight of Sri Lankan Tamils.
Malaysia Nanban was founded by Dato Sikandar Bacha, a prominent Indian Muslim businessman in the 80s. Nanban is seen as more independent and neutral in it’s coverage throughout the years.
Nanban is brave enough to criticise or support both BN and Pakatan when it matters to Indian community although it had made some blunders in the past resulting in delays to renewal of their annual permit. They were also once warned for going to the extremes in reporting Sri Lankan civil war where their reports were more in support of rebel Tamil Tiger leader, Prabakaran of LTTE, which is labeled as a terrorist group by UN. More on Malaysian Tamils affinity with Prabakaran here
Similarities between the 3 newspapers
All 3 papers have only about 20 pages every day except for Sunday where they provide a leisure supplement.
All 3 dailies provide at least one page coverage on issues affecting the Sri Lankan Tamils. It used to be 4 pages during the civil war.
All 3 papers provide at 2 least 2 page coverage on politics in Tamil Nadu and India. Most of the news are from the same syndicated source. They target Indian National living in Malaysia as well as Malaysian Tamils who are still fond of what some of them call, their motherland. (As them to go and live there, they never will)
All 3 newspapers provide extensive coverage on event involving MP, ADUNs or Indian VIPs depending on their political leaning although all 3 attempts to cover both BN and Opposition.
All 3 papers have limited advertisements hence their main source of revenue depends on number of copies sold.
All 3 papers provides inconsistent one page sports coverage, with no follow throughs the following day or week.
Tamil Nesan and Makkal Ossai of recent, are more fond of sensational headlines, usually associated with MIC political rivals.
All 3 newspapers hardly provide any information of how to get assistance of government agencies for various needs such as getting aid for the hardcore poor, resolving identity card issues and other common problems associated with the community.
All 3 news papers hardly provide regular coverage on business opportunities or business loans or funding available to the community.
None provide regular coverage of stock market, business news or investment opportunities.
None has active online presence. Online version of Nanban is not promptly updated and at times not at all.
Differences
Not much except for more neutral and independent Nanban where there are semblance of nation building editorials every day.
Malaysia Nanban is also favoured by Najib, who graced their SPM students prize giving event for last 2 years.
Summary
All 3 newspapers have not done much for community where it matters most, let alone nation building.
I have the opportunity to mingle with working class people whose source of news are solely from Tamil newspapers. They appear to be lost when informed of latest happenings in the country, political or non political. That’s how shallow the information that they get from these dailies.
They are also not aware of many aid and assistance available from many government and state agencies due to lack of coverage in the dailies.
They also have less knowledge of history, therefore do not appreciate country progress in politics, economy and socially throughout the years. This is also one of the reasons for their support for Hindraf, who received extensive coverage in Nanban and to a certain extend, Makkal Ossai.
All the mud slinging between Makkal Ossai and Tamil Nesan even invited the reprimand from PM Najib during the recent MIC AGM. Despite the reminder not to use newspapers for own political agenda, both papers have continued the ugly fight till today. Read here for more.
It would not be a loss for the tamil community if any of these dailies are out of business or even shut down by government. Both Tamil Nesan and Makkal Osai should just shut down their operations so that Nanban can thrive to become more authoritative independent voice of the community.
Perhaps a dual language (Bahasa and English) equivalent should be introduced to cater for the non-Tamil reading/speaking group within the Indian community.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Pakatan Rakyat – Epitome of ‘Competency, Accountability & Transparency’
The recent Pakatan Rakyat related scandals in Selangor, convinced what neutral critics and political analyst (active and those armchair analyst ) suspected when Pakatan came to power in 4 or rather 5 states, that nothing much is going to change and reforms remains in the lips of politicians from the Opposition and never really took off.
The worst, Pakatan are repeating the same blunders committed by BN, going to the extend of imitating BN way of doing things, despite all those reformist chants and sloganeering in the statements and ceramahs.
Being a resident in Selangor, I have not seen much change for more than 2 years now. The honeymoon period was long over. The honeymoon period should have been the time where Pakatan should have done a comprehensive review of the state government workings, policies and make necessary changes or in their own words, reforms.
Agreed that there were several feel good Rakyat friendly policies in place but ‘merakyatkan ekonomi’ really means nothing, when it comes to real policies or opportunities benefiting the Rakyat at large, economically.
The recent reports, counter reports, sacking, accusations, tweets or rather mistweets over supports letters only goes to show that Pakatan politicians are no different from BN. I remember that during the PKFZ scandal, the opposition went to town accusing Minister of transport, Chan Kong Choy of corruption and abuse of power for issuing support letters to companies involved in the project to secure loans and contracts.
As usual, there were noises from Mr Lim Kit Siang calling for Royal Commision of Enquiry on PKFZ. What about Selangor support letters issue? It was said that support letters were issued to contractors to win contracts worth millions. That is what was reported, what about those which went unreported or undeclared. Lim Kit Siang should seek appointment with Sultan of Selangor and demand for a Royal Commission of Enquiry. Why the silence when Kit Siang slams BN over any thing that goes wrong in this country, the next moment it happens.
When talking about reforms, if this issue was not reported (initially there was accusations that the MCA owned newspaper, The Star , was simply making up stories to destabilise the DAP powered state government), nothing would have been done to change or eliminate issuance of ‘support letters’ , because there was no intention to reform in the first place. MB Khalid was jolted when The Star headlined the story, admitting that investigation has been going on for 2 weeks ( about a month now, with no new updates) with no one asked to go on leave or suspended, inviting accusations that there were attempts to cover up the issue and gross lack of transparency over the whole affair.
Even the appointment of councilors were chaotic. Until now no one know how the selection process works and it turns out, they did another BN, no transparency whatsoever and in usual Malaysian style, the appointments were made late and changes were made in the last minutes. Even their ally, PSM was left bewildered with the omission of their own candidate.
Sand theft and illegal mining also shown the that the state government has learnt how to make money and contribute well in advance towards high income economy. Never miond that it benefits a small group of people working for the state government company, KKSB, which does nothing but works as a middleman between the actual sand mining companies and the state government. KKSB is nothing but a poor imitation of BN held state government companies which do nothing but act like blood sucking middlemen.
What would be the role of the Jabatan Tanah in all these, watch your newborn (KKSB) mint money and pay their staff 6 months of bonus over a year. KKSB’s contribution towards high income economy is 10 years ahead of the Najib’s plan. And very few companies around the world pay 6 months of bonus within a year of operations. As far as I know, only some lucky Skim Cepat Kaya companies have achieved that feat.
What has the state government done with the apparent mismanagement of sand mining activity and also the state government’s company’s role in it? The SELCAT hearing, completed in record 3 days, did not even ask for full fledged investigation to be carried out neither did they invite MACC to investigate. Evidences offered by own PKR MP, Manikavasagam was rejected due to some silly technicalities. Aren’t they interested in getting to the bottom of the issue, I don’t think so. Perhaps members of SELCAT, were worried some of them would have been dragged into the issue as perhaps, they would have issued supports letters to related companies which they can't even remember now.
Not much information has been much has been forthcoming ever since. No one knows if anyone was penalized or changes forthcoming in the company, except for statements blaming BN for even bigger scams during their days in power. Didn’t the Rakyat sent BN packing for all their misdeeds? What is the point of blaming BN again and again.
Now the state government plans a 15Million Ringgit information(or propaganda) blitz to give Rakyat a clearer picture of state governments workings, policies and achievements. I don’t know how this benefits the Rakyat. In Selangor where, broadband and internet access are reasonably high, nobody really reads mainstream media or watches RTM for example and with the fact that all Pakatan Parties’ newsletters or bulletins are readily available in the market, is this spending necessary. Kelantan, with lesser access to the net, Astro and even newspapers have managed to hold Kelantan for so long.
And finally, look at the behaviors of the key ADUNs and EXCO members. Their denials, counter denials, accusations, tweets, statements and media play only proves that every one of them are only interested to safeguard the own position. They are not even worried about repercussions and party image when about going public defending themselves. Where are the party dicipline and party media communication procedures?
Where is CEO, sorry, should be MB, Khalid in all these, only the EXCO members know. He is apparently not in the know of most of the things happening around him and he appears to be as confused and indecisive in the mould of Abdullah Badawi.
How all these resonate with ‘Competency, Accountability and Transparency, I really don’t know? Maybe the architect of CAT, Emperor Lim Guan Eng has the answers and perhaps he, in his own arrogant style, can lecture some of his DAP comrades what those principles are in reality, if it was ever practiced in the first place.
By the way, Penang State Government promised that their leaders would undertake Asset declaration exercise. They delayed it claiming that standard form was not provided by federal government. If I am not mistaken, that was slightly more two years ago. Yet Mr Guan Eng’s government still appears not to have the ‘Competency’ to come up with a simple ‘Asset Declaration’ form and do not feel ‘Accountable’ to the promise that they made to the Rakyat. No one actually asked for it then.
Perhaps they now feel that the there is no need to practice ‘Transparency’ as their Pakatan counterparts in other states, after more than two years of governing, do not believe in those slogans anymore.
The worst, Pakatan are repeating the same blunders committed by BN, going to the extend of imitating BN way of doing things, despite all those reformist chants and sloganeering in the statements and ceramahs.
Being a resident in Selangor, I have not seen much change for more than 2 years now. The honeymoon period was long over. The honeymoon period should have been the time where Pakatan should have done a comprehensive review of the state government workings, policies and make necessary changes or in their own words, reforms.
Agreed that there were several feel good Rakyat friendly policies in place but ‘merakyatkan ekonomi’ really means nothing, when it comes to real policies or opportunities benefiting the Rakyat at large, economically.
The recent reports, counter reports, sacking, accusations, tweets or rather mistweets over supports letters only goes to show that Pakatan politicians are no different from BN. I remember that during the PKFZ scandal, the opposition went to town accusing Minister of transport, Chan Kong Choy of corruption and abuse of power for issuing support letters to companies involved in the project to secure loans and contracts.
As usual, there were noises from Mr Lim Kit Siang calling for Royal Commision of Enquiry on PKFZ. What about Selangor support letters issue? It was said that support letters were issued to contractors to win contracts worth millions. That is what was reported, what about those which went unreported or undeclared. Lim Kit Siang should seek appointment with Sultan of Selangor and demand for a Royal Commission of Enquiry. Why the silence when Kit Siang slams BN over any thing that goes wrong in this country, the next moment it happens.
When talking about reforms, if this issue was not reported (initially there was accusations that the MCA owned newspaper, The Star , was simply making up stories to destabilise the DAP powered state government), nothing would have been done to change or eliminate issuance of ‘support letters’ , because there was no intention to reform in the first place. MB Khalid was jolted when The Star headlined the story, admitting that investigation has been going on for 2 weeks ( about a month now, with no new updates) with no one asked to go on leave or suspended, inviting accusations that there were attempts to cover up the issue and gross lack of transparency over the whole affair.
Even the appointment of councilors were chaotic. Until now no one know how the selection process works and it turns out, they did another BN, no transparency whatsoever and in usual Malaysian style, the appointments were made late and changes were made in the last minutes. Even their ally, PSM was left bewildered with the omission of their own candidate.
Sand theft and illegal mining also shown the that the state government has learnt how to make money and contribute well in advance towards high income economy. Never miond that it benefits a small group of people working for the state government company, KKSB, which does nothing but works as a middleman between the actual sand mining companies and the state government. KKSB is nothing but a poor imitation of BN held state government companies which do nothing but act like blood sucking middlemen.
What would be the role of the Jabatan Tanah in all these, watch your newborn (KKSB) mint money and pay their staff 6 months of bonus over a year. KKSB’s contribution towards high income economy is 10 years ahead of the Najib’s plan. And very few companies around the world pay 6 months of bonus within a year of operations. As far as I know, only some lucky Skim Cepat Kaya companies have achieved that feat.
What has the state government done with the apparent mismanagement of sand mining activity and also the state government’s company’s role in it? The SELCAT hearing, completed in record 3 days, did not even ask for full fledged investigation to be carried out neither did they invite MACC to investigate. Evidences offered by own PKR MP, Manikavasagam was rejected due to some silly technicalities. Aren’t they interested in getting to the bottom of the issue, I don’t think so. Perhaps members of SELCAT, were worried some of them would have been dragged into the issue as perhaps, they would have issued supports letters to related companies which they can't even remember now.
Not much information has been much has been forthcoming ever since. No one knows if anyone was penalized or changes forthcoming in the company, except for statements blaming BN for even bigger scams during their days in power. Didn’t the Rakyat sent BN packing for all their misdeeds? What is the point of blaming BN again and again.
Now the state government plans a 15Million Ringgit information(or propaganda) blitz to give Rakyat a clearer picture of state governments workings, policies and achievements. I don’t know how this benefits the Rakyat. In Selangor where, broadband and internet access are reasonably high, nobody really reads mainstream media or watches RTM for example and with the fact that all Pakatan Parties’ newsletters or bulletins are readily available in the market, is this spending necessary. Kelantan, with lesser access to the net, Astro and even newspapers have managed to hold Kelantan for so long.
And finally, look at the behaviors of the key ADUNs and EXCO members. Their denials, counter denials, accusations, tweets, statements and media play only proves that every one of them are only interested to safeguard the own position. They are not even worried about repercussions and party image when about going public defending themselves. Where are the party dicipline and party media communication procedures?
Where is CEO, sorry, should be MB, Khalid in all these, only the EXCO members know. He is apparently not in the know of most of the things happening around him and he appears to be as confused and indecisive in the mould of Abdullah Badawi.
How all these resonate with ‘Competency, Accountability and Transparency, I really don’t know? Maybe the architect of CAT, Emperor Lim Guan Eng has the answers and perhaps he, in his own arrogant style, can lecture some of his DAP comrades what those principles are in reality, if it was ever practiced in the first place.
By the way, Penang State Government promised that their leaders would undertake Asset declaration exercise. They delayed it claiming that standard form was not provided by federal government. If I am not mistaken, that was slightly more two years ago. Yet Mr Guan Eng’s government still appears not to have the ‘Competency’ to come up with a simple ‘Asset Declaration’ form and do not feel ‘Accountable’ to the promise that they made to the Rakyat. No one actually asked for it then.
Perhaps they now feel that the there is no need to practice ‘Transparency’ as their Pakatan counterparts in other states, after more than two years of governing, do not believe in those slogans anymore.
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